Pllek in Amsterdam-Noord celebrates tenth anniversary: from container without a roof to hotspot
On the day of ten years ago Sjoerd Steenbeek restaurant Pllek opened. Today that is celebrated at the restaurant at the NDSM wharf in Amsterdam-North, but it did not seem that Pllek would last ten years.
At least, on the NDSM site. the official license until 2022, something that was already known when the restaurant was founded in 2012. After a successful start of several parties in the city council for the catering facility, that was another year ago extended until 2025† “It is looking back on ten intense and special years,” says owner Steenbeek with a smile.
contest
He started with the restaurant all the way after he had won a competition at the municipality in 2012. The winner was allowed to start a catering concept on the plot of land at the NDSM wharf. “The first year we had no roof,” Steenbeek says about that beginning. “That was of course great fun, but we sometimes had dinner ready, eighty people reserved and then there comes a rain shower and everyone is gone. That is also a first year.”
And Steenbeek ran into more teething problems in the beginning. “We only had eight employees at the time. So if the weather was nice for five days and the weather was even nicer on day six, we would collapse because we couldn’t take it anymore.” The restaurant has now grown into more than that, partly due to the adjacent city beach.
Reverse
This growth also has a downside, Steenbeek explains. “I just wanted to create a small world and when you get bigger, it suddenly becomes a very large, modified world. So your machine has to be adapted. You also use less of the alternative.”
The permit until 2025 has now been received. The question is what will happen to the site afterwards. “I have no idea, but we do hope that it can be even longer,” says Steenbeek. “As far as I’m concerned, I still have ten years of energy to really make something fun out of this.”
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